Jade Unexpected
by ShyOne21
Summary: See the world through the eyes of Jade as she lives life, attends class, and possibly even finds love.
1. Chapter 1

**Jade Unexpected**

- Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious or any of the characters, nor do I own any of the products that have been or may be mentioned.

- Author's Note: So this is my first fanfiction in a long time and it's my first as part of this fandom. It was very much spawned out of watching a marathon of the show. I really like it but I just wanted to give the characters some depth and thought it'd be fun to see it through Jade's eyes as she's such a private character.

Also there's a tiny bit of Tori/Jade towards the end so if femslash offends you then you should turn around now. I think I'll end up continuing this but I suppose it all depends on how I feel about it and how you all feel about it.

And lastly I have no beta so I apologize for any and all typos, poor grammar, inadequate punctuation, etc.

Jade sees a lot more than anyone would expect her to, though to be fair no one expects much of her other than a deeply intimidating glare and a snappy comment. The tough face she puts on in front of everyone has led to her being left alone a lot which means she has a lot of time to sit back and just watch, her favorite pastime.

She notices how Mr. Sikowitz tries to act slightly more normal around their English teach Ms Donavan and she laughs under her breath when his attempts at normalcy just turn out more abnormal. To be honest she thinks it's rather endearing the way he tries and tries but she obviously doesn't let that show. She also sees the smile on Ms. Donovan's face as she watches Mr. Sikowitz leave and hopes she'll give the guy a chance one of these days.

Little does anyone know but Jade often stays after school to get help in Math (which she'll never admit) and to help paint scenery for some of the school plays (which if word ever gets out she'll kill everyone in the club). It's on these days that she hears it, the sound of music floating from one empty room at the end of the east wing of the school. An empty room where Andre sits for hours on end practicing piano, guitar, trumpet, kazoo, and any other instrument he can get his hands on.

Everyone thinks his talent comes easy to him but she sees him shake his head when he misses a note and yell at himself for not doing it perfectly. No one sees the hours of practice he puts into becoming a natural at everything he does, Jade does. But she'll never tell anyone this though she hopes everyone will realize it and applaud him for all his hard work.

She's tried to but she can never listen to Trina talk, it's difficult to listen to her prattle on and on (and on and on and on) but she does take note of little things Trina does which hint that there may be something more to Hollywood Arts High's Queen Bee (at least in her own mind). She notices that Trina's always playing with her hair, not as a habit or as a nervous twitch but because she's constantly trying to fix it (majorly insecure).

And most admirable is the way she's always looking out for Tori. The way her attention is focused on Tori when they're walking together (even though she seems completely self-absorbed), the way she slows down when she hears her sister being talked about, and the most obvious (so obvious she doesn't understand how no one else has noticed) the way Trina is always on the first floor conveniently passing by all of Tori's classrooms even though all of her own classes are on the second floor.

Jade hates the fact that she actually likes Robbie's stupid puppet (and that she knows his full name but refuses to call him by that cuz it'd give her away). No one knows that she's actually known Robbie for almost as long as she's known Beck, that they all went to elementary school together and that she and Robbie used to be really good friends.

She doesn't even know why she let that friendship fall apart but she does know that she regrets it. She's one of the few that sees Inner Robbie (the Robbie that's actually very intelligent, witty, and talented) hidden beneath Outer Robbie (the exact opposite of all that other stuff). After knowing him for so long Jade can always sense when he's about to lock up, the subtle frown that paints itself on his face, the way his brows furrow, and the way his entire body slumps down. She'll never tell anyone that she wishes she could give him the one pep talk she knows he needs to perk up.

Oh Cat, Cat, Cat, Cat. Her bright mood is so infectious that Jade can sometimes barely contain the smile when the girl blanks out and returns to reality with a comment about her brother or a random piece of useless trivia (which she'll never admit but she always looks up those little grains of knowledge and they're always true). Though Jade is barely surprised because Cat is deceptively smart.

She's the only one that notices the amount of time Cat spends in the library either walking through the stacks or sitting at one of the computers, but always reading something or another. One day it'll be knitting and the next day it'll be Sun Tzu's 'The Art Of War' (though she's not completely sure Cat understands it as at one point she was reading it upside down). She desperately wants to call Cat on her hours on the library or give her the nickname Ms. Wikipedia, but she can't do that because then everyone would know she cared enough to look.

Most would expect Beck to be the one she pays most attention to, the one she watches the most, but it's in fact the exact opposite. He's her boyfriend, but more importantly he's her oldest friend. She knows everything there is to know about him, the fact that he'll never admit that he cries easily during romantic comedies, that he is endlessly entertained by escalators, that he really lives in the driveway to avoid his mother's endless tirade against him and his dad, that he needs her help because despite the fact that he always listens in class he gets mixed up and flustered easily despite his calm demeanor.

And of course she knows that Beck doesn't really love her. It's not a huge revelation or a big secret to her and it's not something she spent nights crying over when she realized it. It's something she's grown to accept, mostly because she doesn't love him either. She knows that they both love each other, just not in that 'the hills are alive, over the moon, heels over head, shot to the heart' kind of way people are supposed to. She loves her like someone loves someone they've been friends with a long time, that's why she finds it so hard to break up with him, she's worried that since they've been acting this charade for so long that the end of them as a couple would mean the end of them as friends (which is why she hated Alyssa Vonn, she thought the slag was trying to take her best friend).

No one will know how insecure the idea of her losing him as a friend makes her.

And while she wishes that these people were the first ones she noticed, that these thoughts were the first that invaded her thoughts when she would sit back and watch the daily happenings of life they aren't.

She wishes that the weird Ballet couple in her science class danced out of step through her head all day. She would rather have thoughts of exactly what it was the metal art class had propped up in the cafeteria distracting her all day. Hell, she'd even rather be thinking about how the hell she was supposed to know that the interpretive dance troupe was trying to act out Finding Nemo.

But these weren't the thoughts that invaded her thoughts, these weren't the people that took up a permanent residence in her thoughts. It was just one person, one endlessly annoying person who won't exit her thoughts and Jade doesn't even want to begin to theorize on why that is.

From the first day she saw Tori Vega, Jade knew that this girl would have her barely divided attention. The way she smiled made Jade perk up in her seat, not because of how Beck was entranced by her, but because of how easily Jade could read her, how open the girl was, how if you just looked you could see all the emotions on Tori's face on that first day: the nervousness, the fear, the sense of not belonging, the desire to hide.

All things Jade remembers once feeling herself before donning her armor of indifference and dry wit. Jade also notices the way Tori looks at people in the same way she does, analyzing them, watching them, trying to read them and because of this she panicked. She panicked because for once someone was trying to read her and she didn't like it, that and the way that Beck became so focused on her lead to her coffee ending up on Tori's head.

She hated herself for it after, for making the girl's day a living hell but it seemed that Tori Vega had this ability to make her crazy and irrational. Maybe it was because of the way that even though she could tell Tori was never completely sure of herself, everyone always seemed completely sure of her, that she could do what was put in front of her.

Maybe it was because when she stayed after school she'd occasionally pop her head in and see Tori getting tutoring, how she'd see her test herself by asking one hundred questions and if she failed she'd ask a hundred and one. How she'd hear her voice traveling down the halls as she trained her voice in one of the auditoriums in the west wing of the school.

She's the only one to notice the pep talks Trina gives her right before every performance because of Tori's pre-show jitters (something everyone thought she had worked out after the big showcase but Jade saw that she still freaked and occasionally still needed to be dragged kicking and screaming to the stage).

She sees Tori secretly checking the science fiction books out of the library, watches her bop her head to the death metal no one would expect her to like, and has seen her roll her eyes as Trina tries to tell her about the latest fashion trends or newest celebrity news out of whatever the magazine of the day is. And she pays special attention to the moments when Tori is quiet, when she's alone or when everyone around her is chatting and she's silent and just doodles in her notebook. The way she bites her bottom lip in concentration and erases something before trying again.

Much like herself Tori isn't as she seems. Everyone thinks Tori is perfect and bubbly and nice but Jade's seen her struggling with her own work, her own self-doubt, and her own expectations. She's seen all these qualities and quirks that Tori hides from others and she knows that while others may be attracted to Tori because of what they see, Jade knows that she's hopelessly attracted to her because of what they don't see.

It scares Jade, so she puts up an even stronger barrier between her and the girl much like her but not like her at all. A girl that for all her insecurities and attempts to hide parts of herself isn't afraid of putting herself out there, Tori isn't afraid of the possibility that her flaws will be discovered or that she's making herself more vulnerable to being hurt. It's a type of bravery Jade wishes she has and Tori's the kind of girl she wishes she could have.

But of course, Jade would never admit this to anyone. Especially her.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything in this or any fanfiction. Oh well.

Author's Note: Thanks for your reviews. I'm hoping this chapter is alright though I'm not too sure of it. Also still unbeta'd, but anyway enjoy it.

"Shoot me now" was all Jade said as she sat down in Biology Class that Monday morning as Beck sat down at his own lab table. "I don't get why you're so tired. You've got your coffee and all." This earned him a glare as he turned to pull his books out of his bag.

'Lack of sleep due to someone wanting to stay up late and talk, and talk, and talk may have a little something to do with it' she thought as she glared at his back, willing it to burst into flames. He turned back to her and smiled "You should take my lead, wide awake and chipper."

She knew he was just joking but at that moment her desire to burn the boy grew exponentially 'Of course you're wide awake all you had to do was talk, I had to listen to you all night.' She let her murderous thought dissipate as she turned to her own bag to get her books out and took another sip of her coffee, wishing it would do it's job and wake her up.

Her thoughts were interrupted (as always) by the appearance of Tori Vega who was quite unlike her usual self. Her hair was down in a messy pony tail, her face was void of all makeup, her pace was slow and labored, and she was dragging her bag right behind her and in that moment Jade still thought she looked amazing.

Her eyes were glued to the very visibly exhausted girl as she lumbered towards their desk and plopped down in her chair. Jade could barely help but smile as she watched the girl's head make a slow descent onto the desk. "Geez what the hell happened to you, you're not your annoyingly awake self like usual." Tori's eyes turned to the dark haired girl.

Jade earned herself the rarely seen 'Tori Glare' that was usually reserved for Trina but was directed at her this morning "You've got no room to talk." was her reply and Jade had to admit it was a good one. She had worn her very best sweatpants because they were the first thing she could grab, her hair wasn't completely unlike a crow's nest and she had neglected make up as well. "Ooh getting a bit snappy in the morning, not sure it suits you." was all Jade said and she could barely hear the other girl's reply as it was muffled by the desk she tried sleeping on.

Rolling her eyes Jade decided to be a bit nicer, she knew she'd have the same reaction to herself if she had to deal with it this early so she slid her coffee over to the other girl. "All right, now really what's up?" Tori eyed the cup suspiciously as it was pushed over to her. "Hey! What's with the look?"

"The last time you offered me coffee it came from the garbage so excuse me if I'm a bit more suspicious this time." was the answer she got. To be honest Jade had actually just bought the aforementioned coffee for Tori as a peace offering but lost her nerve at the last second and returned to her 'mean girl' ways, but this time she wasn't going to lose nerve. Probably.

"Yeah well this one's never been anywhere near a garbage can, ask Beck he saw me buy it. Got a receipt and everything if you need anymore evidence inspector." Ok, so she couldn't help but add some of her usual 'charm' to the comment, it was in her nature and it got the job done as Tori finally took the coffee in hand and sipped at it. "Atta girl, drink up I know it's one of your favorites. Now why is Princess Tori looking more like Bag Lady Tori this morning?"

"Trina's been flipping out over this new guy in her class and she needs to talk about him day and night because he's like so cute and totally into her and junk", Tori's voice dropped into a spot on impression of her older sister which put a barely there smile on Jade's face. "I'm guessing Beck kept you up all night?" she asked as she took another sip, pepping up just slightly.

"Mmhm, it may not seem like it but once you get him talking it just doesn't stop. He's kind of like one of those yipping toy dogs that are fun at the start but later you just want to rip out it's battery pack." Tori laughed at the comment and Jade joined her, glad to have made the girl she wouldn't admit crushing on laugh.

"Oh I know the feeling. When I'm talking with Trina it's like pulling the string on one of those dolls that talk, but the string snaps so it just keeps going until you chuck it out the window." Slightly surprised but not very surprised that the girl could match her joke for joke Jade found her mood lightening. "This coffee is really good by the way, I can't taste dirty banana peel or dry gum at all."

Her sly smile almost made Jade melt, though no one would be able to tell the frosty girl may have been losing her cool so she just scoffed "Well you know I got this one out of one of the third floor trash cans, they rank up there with some of the cleanest trash cans in the school, cleaner than the ones on the fourth floor but not as clean as the ones in the east wing of the second floor."

"Ooh fancy, didn't know you could care so much Jade." was the sarcastic reply. "Only the best for you Princess." was Jade's equally sarcastic reply but neither of them held the hostile edge they usually did and instead the girls were smiling as Tori passed the coffee back for Jade to take a sip.

"You better be careful Jade, some of your inner nice girl is showing. If you're not careful I might think you have a soft spot for me." And at that Jade let out a snort, shooting out a bit of warm coffee through her nose. "Oh god are you ok?" Jade put the coffee down quickly and looked around to make sure nobody saw her reaction, thankfully they didn't garner any attention as Tori grabbed some tissues from her purse to clear the mess.

Jade's eyes widened as Tori continued to ask if she was ok while reaching up to wipe her nose for her but Jade ripped the tissue from her hand and wiped it herself. "Hands off, I'm fine. It's just funny that you think I'm nice, pft yeah right.", Jade let out a nervous breath she didn't know she was holding in as Tori nodded 'Yep, that's all it is. Has nothing to do with you jokingly referring to an actual soft spot, nope nothing to see here, moving on.

"Well alright, but I bet there's a somewhat nice girl somewhere in there lurking and waiting to break out and give everyone a great big hug." the following laugh from Jade didn't deter Tori from smiling, not even when Jade responded "Ha maybe in your dreams Vega."

"And what makes you think you'd even be part of my dreams West?" the two girls stared one another down, the mood light as they went back and forth. "Because I'm awesome, everyone dreams of me or of being me."

Tori's giggles got slightly louder "Oh wow, now who's delusional?" The two lowered their voices as more students started filtering in to class. "Still you, what could possibly make you think I was nice?" The teacher interrupted Tori before she could continue talking so Jade sat back in her chair and when the teacher turned his back Tori turned to give Jade and held up the now empty coffee cup "Because you gave me your coffee, and you knew it was one of my favorites." And before Jade could respond class was underway.

Jade was thankful for the quiet and uneventful Bio Class as it gave her the opportunity to keep talking with Tori, surprising both herself and she's positive she surprised the other girl as they found themselves talking throughout the period. It was out of character for herself, she knew that much, but she knew if she didn't finally manage to have a civil conversation with the girl they'd continue on this hostile cycle they had been on since Tori arrived, something Jade had wanted to end before it even began.

In fact her entire day continued in that way, talking casually with Tori as if they had never been semi-enemies and it lifted Jade's mood to levels it hadn't been at in a long while, though only those who had known her the longest could tell. Her change in mood was subtle, Beck could tell because she didn't taunt Robbie and Cat when they inexplicably walked by with Cat carrying Rex and Robbie wearing a ridiculous poncho.

"Hey, what's up with you today?" was his question during study hall in the library. She knew what he was asking but couldn't tell him the truth, right? "What're you talking about?"

"Well no offense but you've been unusually not mean today. You didn't even trip Cora when she walked down the hall with all her books over her face like you usually do." It was a pastime of hers, it was funny to her kind of like when people walk into a wall while they're texting. "Well maybe I didn't feel like it today, no shut up I'm trying to study.

"You didn't even laugh when Mr. Turton fell out of his chair and couldn't get up." She had been to distracted chatting with Tori in scriptwriting class to notice the turtle-like man had even fallen over. "Well it's not funny, he could've gotten hurt."

"Now I know you're lying, you love laughing when people fall plus you're studying out of an Italian textbook." She hadn't even realized it, just snatched a book to try and get him to change the subject. "What's your point?"

"Jade, you're not taking any language courses."

"It's never too late to start!" was the quick response he got from her as she got up and started gathering her things and putting them in her bag. "Look Beck, you're being hysterical and I can't deal with it. Get it together, calm yourself down, take a chill pill, etcetera." With that poorly veiled excuse she got up and made her way out of the library, leaving an extremely confused boyfriend in her wake. She knew that she could've came up with a better lie but she wasn't thinking, just worrying about her mood giving her away.

She found herself in the mostly empty cafeteria where there were a few other students hanging around on an off period or just skipping class, one of which was Robbie. 'Well I've been astonishingly trailblazing today, why not?' she asked herself as she walked forward and joined him at the table. He was working on Rex, fixing the pulleys in his back and adjusting his jaw. For a while Jade just watched as he tinkered with it, not knowing it was so complicated inside the crude dummy.

Without even knowing it Jade had leant forward to get a closer look and when she did Robbie jumped in his seat when she suddenly entered his field of vision. "J-Jade, what're you doing here? Is this your table? Cuz if it is I could just-well there are lots of tables so…"

"Hey relax, I've got study hall this period so I decided to come here." He raised his eyebrow, visibly confused. "What? What is it?"

"You decided to sit with me? Instead of Beck or well pretty much anyone else?", she expected the reaction but wasn't too sure of how to respond. "Well uh…I don't really know anyone else in here and Beck's being really annoying today. And so I thought 'why not sit with my old friend Robbie.'"

The eyebrow still didn't lower "You actually want to talk with me?" and Jade still wasn't sure how to respond so she decided to (for once) go with honesty. "Well, yeah. I mean I know we haven't really talked or anything in a few years and that kind of sucks so yeah, I do want to talk with you." And like that the eyebrows finally lowered as he nodded slightly and let out a shy smile.

"That'd be real nice, just uhm I don't really think I'll be great company. I mean I don't really know anything you'd like or…", she began chuckling a bit and pointed down at Rex. "Well you still need to fix this…whatever the hell it is so why don't you tell me about that." He nodded and went back to fixing up the dummy, all the while letting Jade know about the intricacies of puppet handling.

To be honest Jade was completely lost and disinterested in these intricacies but she was glad that by the time the bell rang indicating the end of the class period she was back on speaking terms with her old friend. 'I'd better be careful, next thing you know I'll be turning in homework and holding the door open for people. But probably not.'

The rest of Jade's day went on much the same, save for avoiding the inquisitive Beck in the hopes of dodging her unusually less negative attitude today. And when the final bell rang she made her way to her locker where Beck finally caught up to her. "Hey, what's up?"

When she saw him Jade knew she was caught because he had one of those grins, one of those grins that says 'I know something you don't want me to know'. "Nothing's up, see you tomorrow." But when she tried to walk passed him he stepped in her way, still grinning. She leant forward and pecked him on the lips. "There you go, can I pass now?"

"May I pass now you mean?" he continued smiling and Jade was getting increasingly annoyed rather than worried. "May I punch you if you don't move?" And the annoyance grew as he just laughed. "I finally know what's been going on with you today."

"Oh you do, do you now? Well kindly tell me so I can laugh, tell you you're wrong, and go along with my day unbothered by the delusions of my so called boyfriend." He crossed his arms and answered "You're being nice today. You didn't trip anyone today, you didn't steal my notes and turn them into paper airplanes, you didn't insult anyone during improv, you actually threw out your lunch instead of making me do it, and you talked to Robbie."

So he did know something she didn't want him to know but he didn't know everything she didn't want him to know and that was good enough. "So I was being less mean than usual, people underestimate how much energy it takes to be me. I was just having an off day." She began walking off as he followed quickly behind. "No Jade, I've seen you on an off day. You on an off day means you don't talk to anyone and your lunch ends up on someone's head, this is different. This is you being nice. Something happened to make you all nice today and while I'd love to think it were me I know it wasn't."

"Nothing 'made me nice' today because I'm not being nice, I'm being lazy. End of story, be gone." and with a wave of her hand Jade wished he disappeared but he just stepped in front of her with that same stupid grin. "Something did happen and I'm going to find out what. I'll see you tomorrow." He pecked her on the cheek and walked off, intent on getting to the bottom of his girlfriend's unusual mood.

Annoyed and worried Jade continued walking to one of the tutoring classrooms with her books in hand, knowing that tomorrow she'd have to convince Beck that there was nothing different about her. But when she walked into the room and saw Tori sitting there amongst the other student, biting her lip in concentration as she read over her homework she knew that was much easier said then done.

And when Tori finally sees her at the door and her face breaks out into a smile as she waves Jade over, she knows that her days of being just a little nicer are just beginning.


End file.
